Showing Employee Appreciation for Better Engagement and Morale

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September 15th, 2022

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Effective communication is critical to ensuring a good working environment. Workplace recognition is particularly effective when it comes to employee engagement, productivity, and wellbeing. While many companies may believe they show enough acknowledgment for their staff, a recent engagement and retention report indicated over 80% of employees wish their employer recognized their work more often.

The same report found that one-third of employees also find it hard to connect with their coworkers and the company culture. While employees appreciate flexible scheduling and the ability to work from home, many still desire face-to-face interaction for at least part of the week. With the pandemic forcing many companies to shift to remote platforms, employees feel disconnected, unrecognized, and unmotivated.

Recognizing past and ongoing achievements are essential for employee motivation and productivity. The pandemic has made this more challenging to achieve, but it’s well worth the effort. A Gallup Workplace report found that companies that focus on employee engagement have 41% less absenteeism than those that don’t. The research identified workplace recognition as one of the most effective ways to improve employee engagement and absenteeism rates.

While grand gestures aren’t feasible or realistic for day-to-day interactions, company leadership can implement the following to show employee appreciation:

Regular recognition. Companies can’t afford to wait until a holiday party to recognize employees. Yearly or quarterly recognition isn’t enough to sustain employee engagement. Weekly recognition yields the greatest returns on employee engagement. Recognition efforts don’t need to be over the top, either. They can be as simple as acknowledging an employee’s role in meeting a deadline or highlighting how their work contributes to the company’s goals.

If companies take too long to recognize an employee’s efforts, it isn’t likely to yield the desired outcome. Employees perceive delayed acknowledgment as a check in the box or that their company leadership didn’t notice their efforts in the moment.

Specific acknowledgment. Personalized acknowledgments will always produce better results than sending generic, canned messages to multiple people. When recognition is specific, employees are much more likely to repeat the action in the future.

Public encouragement. Thanking employees behind closed doors doesn’t foster a company culture of appreciation. Recognizing employees in front of their peers is a much more effective means of showing appreciation.

Recognizing employee efforts is an effective motivator. It improves employee engagement and has a direct effect on absenteeism. To learn more about reducing absenteeism in the workplace, contact the experts at Actec.

How to Identify Employee Burnout Before It Does Damage

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May 4th, 2021

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If employees are suffering from burnout, they’re more likely to make mistakes, experience drops in productivity, or start to have attendance problems (i.e. arriving late, leaving early, or calling out of work). Even if only one or two employees are struggling with burnout, managers are likely to notice the effects are office-wide. Once one employee stops pulling his or her weight, other employees have to pick up the slack. This puts added stress on the rest of the staff and can cause a chain reaction of burned out employees. Even if burned out employees don’t affect their coworkers, they are prone to making costly errors that can cause delays.

Thankfully, employee burnout is easy to spot. If managers and employers pay attention to their employees, they can recognize key indicators of burnout and take steps to rectify it before it begins hurting productivity and company morale through employee absenteeism and presenteeism.

  1. Heightened cynicism. Once productive employees may begin to balk at requests. A sudden shift to pessimism indicates the employee is disillusioned with or frustrated by his or her work. On that note, if an employee who is known for being a go-getter becomes negative and doubtful of certain objectives or goals, he or she may be experiencing burnout.
  2. Mistakes increase in frequency and severity. Seeing more typos when employees are under tight deadlines isn’t surprising. However, when an employee who often performs perfect work begins to make preposterous mistakes, something is wrong. The employee may feel underappreciated or overworked. Employers need to take the time to determine if the mistakes are the result of the employee growing careless or if he or she is suffering from burnout.
  3. Sudden disinterest with work. If a certain employee who always has ideas or contributes to the conversation goes silent at every meeting, he or she may be suffering from burnout. If the employee is overburdened with work, he or she isn’t going to engage any further until the problem is rectified.
  4. Attendance problems emerge. Some employees struggle with attendance, but when a previously punctual employee starts coming in late, leaving early, or not showing up at all, something is not right. Absent employees can derail projects, hurt productivity, and torpedo workplace morale. Managers must leverage absence reporting tools to determine if the sudden attendance problems are the result of family issues, an illness, or excessive work. If the problem is the latter, burnout is the culprit behind the absences.

Preventing burnout before it can take hold among the staff is of vital importance to businesses. If your company is trying to contend with absenteeism, Actec can help. Our absence reporting program can improve productivity, reduce absenteeism, and simplify your attendance keeping processes. Contact us to learn more.

Improving Employee Attendance and Engagement

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December 11th, 2017

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shutterstock_174875483A business cannot operate without its employees. When employees call out often or exhibit other attendance issues (i.e. arrive late, leave early, etc.), there is a problem within the company. Left unchecked, staff morale will start to decline and turnover rates will start to increase. There are plenty of businesses waiting to reel in skilled but dissatisfied workers from competing companies, so it behooves employers to ensure their workforce stays motivated.

Professional Development

No employee wants to remain stagnant in his or her position. Professional development opportunities not only expands employees’ skill sets, it also helps them improve their job performance and productivity. Consider cross-training employees in different departments or have them attend seminars.

Incentives

Some workweeks are hectic and every company experiences busy seasons. However, failing to recognize when employees go above and beyond will tank morale. Given enough time and neglect, employees will start to look for other job opportunities. One method to combat this is to provide small bonuses such as free movie tickets for every month of perfect attendance. Rewarding and incentivizing desired behaviors has two benefits. First, the employee experiences a boost in job satisfaction. Second, other employees will take notice and emulate the behaviors to achieve acknowledgment as well.

Flexibility

Millennials value flexibility in the workplace. As the percentage of millennials in the workforce is ever increasing, it behooves business owners to address their needs. Employers can incorporate flexibility in a number of ways:

  • Offer a once a week telecommute option where applicable
  • Allow employees to work from home when needed (i.e. when staying home with a sick child or if weather prevents them from reaching the office safely)
  • Allow flexible start and end times to help employees achieve a better work-life balance

Communicating with employees can provide invaluable insights as well. Employers may think they have a good read on their employees, but, without asking them, it is all speculation. Employers should also discuss attendance expectations with their staff to prevent any confusion.
Managing employee attendance is an important job and one employers should take seriously. Failing to monitor employee attendance can affect productivity and hurt a company’s bottom line. To learn more about absence management, contact the experts at Actec.

Absence Management with Employee Engagement

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September 22nd, 2015

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There are times when you want employees to call in sick. Unhealthy employees are less productive and can spread illnesses throughout the office. However, some employees call out because they are unsatisfied with their job and aren’t committed to the company. To reduce this kind of absenteeism, your company may want to increase employee engagement.
What is Employee Engagement?
Employee engagement is a term used to describe strategies that increase worker involvement with decision making, product development and management. It helps employees understand that the company values the people who work for the organization. It also helps companies by increasing flexibility and decreasing the time to launch process.
What Kind of Engagement Strategies Work?
Some of the best engagement strategies to use to increase employee satisfaction include:

  • Sharing marketing and production goals with employees
  • Including employees in strategy sessions
  • Allowing employees to manage small projects
  • Receive input from employees regarding policy changes

By implementing these strategies employees will feel valued and that they are making an important contribution to the company.
How Engagement Decreases Absenteeism
When employees feel engaged and valued, they are satisfied with their career and are committed to the company. They look forward to going to work every day and less likely to call in sick because they are bored, restless or unsatisfied.
Employee engagement increases productivity and efficiency while decreasing absenteeism and employees leaving for competitors. This will help make absentee management more efficient, but your business may want to consider outsourcing this part of HR to focus on other business processes. For more information on our services, contact us.